The 1970s were a strange time for Brazil's film industry. With the country itself under the thumb of a series of military regimes, fear that the population would arise en mass and force a change in government were not entirely unfounded. As far back as the Soviet's embrace of film as an agent of propaganda, the Kino Eye has always drawn increasingly harsh and desperate attempts to control the message, and in many cases, the content of film. The power within a simple moving image to stir the passions of the downtrodden are not to be trifled with and…

HEY LOOK TITTIES!!

There's your introduction to Brazilian drama of the 1970s and early 1980s. Brazil did indeed have a repressive military running the show, and the country itself is very much tied to the traditions of The Catholic Church, a new hybrid film style emerged that …

OH MAN, LESBIANS!!! CHECK IT OUT!!!

Damn it.

Okay, so there were these flicks, which in a typical socially, economically, and militarily repressed country would be banned, but in Brazil weren't because. Er… wait. What was I saying.

Oh right. Apparently, medium-core porn distracts viewers from the film's underlying political message while the politics buried in the script elevate the sight of two or more people humping from mere exploitation to a metaphor for government largesse. Or something like that. At any rate what we get with Violence and Flesh is a kidnap drama, Romeo and Juliet type romance, and a very short softcore porn film sprinkled throughout.

You'd think with all of these elements jumbled together that there is no way such a film would ever cohesively gel into anything remotely watchable. And you'd be right. Violence and Flesh is not only a bad drama, it's a stupid one, not only is the Romeo and Juliet/Stockholm Syndrome romance contrived, it's telegraphed all the way from Rio, and the sex? Eee gadz man — There's more sex appeal in The Patterson/Gimlin Footage.

Okay, so let's get to the hairy meat of this film.

We open with three men digging up a suitcase full of cash. They are recent jail escapees, though the one of them who originally buried the money, Zacao, died of a heart attack during the escape. We learn this through expository dialogue. There's four million in the case, and with only three of them, and the boatman (more on him later), that's a million each.

Except for the poor bastard who drove the three escapees to the loot. He gets a lead belly special, which in this film is accomplished with a guy waving a pistol while spaghetti western gunshot sounds ring out in post-production. I guess blanks are hard to come by in Brazilian porn.

Wow, and I wasn't even trying for a pun there!

A girl, Sandra, hears the post-production gunshots and awakens screaming. She, as we will learn, is a lesbian who has defied her parents and shacked up with Ana. Ana, for what it's worth, is sharing her bed and both girls sleep topless. Ana promises that she won't let anything happen to her. Sandra, placated by this, begins smooching with Ana and since this is a porn film we get to watch for about a minute.

Cut back to the car where our villains have stuffed the driver's body inside and set the car on fire. We get to watch the car burn for a full two minutes with some classical music in the background before heading back to the villa and Ana and Sandra.

Seems that Sandra isn't sure she wants to tell her parents that she's going to be a full-time, moved in lesbian with Ana. Her parents, she says, are traditional and already have problems with her. Ana says not to worry, they should concentrate on the new play that Renato is bringing over for them to read. Ana heads out to the beach to fetch Fabio, a man so skinny he might be made entirely of pipe cleaners and skin. He's dancing (spazzing) around on the beach in a pair of bikini shorts (BLECH!) and walks back to the villa with Sandra for morning coffee.

They share some gossip about Renato, how he had an affair with Nelia when they were working on a film together, but Fabio doesn't care because it was only once and he realized that Nelia wasn't his type, yadda yadda yadda.

Got all that? Good.

So, Fabio we learn is Renato's boy toy.

The film actually does a pretty good job introducing the cast of protagonists and setting up their reason for being at this sort of out of the way beach villa. See, Renato, aside from being a porn director, is a playwright and has a new work for his stable of skin-flickers to work on between movie shoots.

Starring will be Leticia, and she'll be bringing her new boyfriend Amato. Cut to Leticia being doggy-styled by Amato. They finish up with much huffing and puffing, but since this is the 70's and isn't hard-core porn, no money shot (thank god) and no sweat. Plenty of body hair though (shudder). Seriously, what the hell was up with the 70s and body hair? It isn’t just these Brazilian flicks either, virtually every sort of hardcore porn film between say 1973 and 1983 featured men who looked like a cross between Burt Reynolds and Snuffalupagus.

Amato is looking forward to meeting everyone for the read-through, but he still has some reservations about her job as a porn actress. He doesn't know if he can get use to her having to screw other men every day for work. Especially after she tells him that she has no feelings at all for any of them, except for when she's really desperate, and hasn't been since she met him.

He isn't an actor, he's an economist (chicks dig slide rules) which is a plus for her because Amato is sort of an escape from the superficial bullshit of faked orgasms and men who can get part time work as Velcro dartboards. Well, maybe being an economist doesn't have anything to do with that.

They start up with the hairy screwing again and we cut to Leticia being doggy styled, but complaining about it. She throws her lover out, a carpenter she met on set somewhere, and he complains that she thinks she's too good for him or anyone else. He's pissed that she wants to be an intellectual. And she does, but who can blame her? I mean, she's realizing that the meat-toy carpenter can't hold a conversation after the old in-out-in-out, and wants better. Better company leads to better roles too, and there ain't no way she's climbing out the porno ladder by toinking Stanley Snapon deCraftsman.

At any rate, she leaves after they argue and she gets ready for her trip to the villa.

Meanwhile, out on the road, Renato is speeding towards his friends when the escapees use a road-runner-cartoon-esque plan to capture him and make him drive them to the villa where they can hide out until the boatman gets there to take them out of Brazil. Before you can say como esta a dua es malas the escapees arrive at the villa with Renato. At first they pretend to be friends of the director, but the ruse breaks down pretty much as soon as everyone gets introduced to his new friends.

And the escapees, I have to say, aren't the smartest bunch. Here they are in a villa on the water right by where the boatman will come and pick them up tomorrow and all they have to do is lay low, be cool, and hang out with these artsy-fartsy-porno types and they are home free.

What do you think the chances of that happening are?

Right, nada.

Anyway, let's meet the robbers for real! They are: a bankrobber/terrorist, a pimp, and a thief.

It takes only a minute for the escapees to completely blow their cover, and they do it for no reason at all. See, Nelia asks if they are also actors and both Jorge and Paulo say they did once put on a Christmas play, then, without provocation, sing a little song about shitting on the floor of a prison. It's great and immediately gives away their ruse.

Stupid.

This starts a fight between Amaro and Jorge that only breaks up when Paulo threatens them with a gun. It's nice that Renato and Fabio don’t leap in and try to help either, I am sure Amaro is thrilled to have such good and brave friends.

Wankers.

Anyway, now that everything is out in the open we get to listen to Tercio's justification for being a bank robber and quasi terrorist (it's for the people, man) while both Amaro and Renato argue that he's not only a common criminal, but a social parasite and murderer. Worse, the Brazilians he claims to want to help, you know, poor people, he hurts by killing the breadwinners (the bank guards), and by proxy, hanging around with reprobate assholes like the other two who are just criminal-criminals and not pseudo-revolutionaries.

Wait a minute, what the hell just happened? Oh, right, see, the thing with these films was the porn didn't really bug anyone in the Brazilian government but straight drama with subversive political messages did. So, one way to keep the politics in and the government out was to wrap the whole thing in a porn because, really, who is actually paying attention to the stupid dialogue when you can be watching Cookie Monster shagging the hell out of Cousin It?

Right, no one. The thing is, in this film at least, the message isn't anywhere near as subversive as it seems at the beginning where Tercio is presented as the sympathetic villain. He's the one with the neo-Marxist ideology, he's the one who is by his own description a political prisoner who faults economists for the inequality o Brazilian society.

But push on through the wiry curls of plot hair and see, all is not exactly what it seems.

Anyway, Jorge sums up the attitude of the audience and proclaims, "all this talk, and I don't know what the hell you're talking about." Jorge wants something more from his guests. He yells for a striptease, Paulo agrees readily.

Before you can say "Hey kids! Let’s put on a show!"

Tercio gets suckered by Leticia into watching part of Renato's play instead. Because that's so much better than watching porn stars strip.

Anyway, Tercio is suddenly complimentary and allows the actors two hours alone to "practice" their scene. This time is instead used to discuss the plot and float the idea of an escape plan. The problem is, the escapees have a gun, and have already proven they are willing to kill those who interfere. What to do? Worse, no one picks up on this for no good reason, Leticia has a thing for Tercio. She's already defending his ethics as a byproduct of the society that let him down.

She's like 24, by the way and Tercio looks to be almost the same age. Even between the two of them they aren't old enough for the social wisdom bandied about here. Adding excruciating insult to injury is the actual play, it's avant garde and features each of the actresses making vague Beckett-esque pronouncements about sunny days and injustice.

I wanted to stuff my ears with spray foam insulation whenever they were performing.

Also, actors playing actors are the worst actors.

I am not the only one who shares the opinion that these people are all crazy, and lousy, actors. Jorge and Paulo have the same opinion. Though, Paulo says he doesn't understand it because it's modern theater and all modern theater is like that. Tercio tells Jorge, who is wondering aloud, what the fuck the play is about. And that mercifully puts an end to the play.

Jorge, with a welcome cry of, "What a load of a shit this is. Here I am watching this shit, thinking there is going to be some hot action, and all they do is talk about death!" starts shoving people around until Nelia is forced to strip. Amaro offers a token defense but Renato forces him to sit. Renato, I think, it meant to represent the powerlessness of the artistic. I mean, yeah, he directs porn, but he also writes infuriatingly bad plays that make convicts angry, but when it comes right down to brass tacks. He won't stand up and dispense or take a beating, even to save the women.

Nelia is forced to perform the most uncomfortable cinematic striptease ever, and in the context of the film it makes sense. She would definitely be nervous, and we as the audience should be watching this with an air of revulsion if only for the forced aspect of it.

So, that's like a roundabout way of saying this is a good scene.

Jorge dances around in front of and with Nelia, and like the burning car at the beginning, it goes on for a really long time. Uncomfortably long.

The film heads into its second act right about here, and as you'd expect in a film like this. Jorge, driven nuts by Nelia's stripping, rapes her on the floor in front of her friends. And this being a Brazilian porn film of the 1970s, he doesn't take his overalls off.

Nelia, for all her talk about being able to tune out the sex scenes she does in her films, seems to do the same as Jorge grinds his overall-covered chorizo into her sweetbread.

Fade out, the second act has truly begun.

After a brief chat between the escapees and the comment from Jorge that Nelia shouldn't complain as she does that all the time in her movies, the film decides it's Paulo's time to get some action. But, prison has changed Paulo, and we aren't talking about rehabilitating his criminal tendencies. No, Paulo likes other guys now and decides to have his way with Fabio.

Renato offers a little more token resistance than he does to protect the girls but only a teeny bit. Paulo also demands a show from Ana and Sandra to set the mood. And what we've just seen is the porn setup to the most horrifyingly uncomfortable bisexual orgy scene ever filmed.

Tercio gets bored by the orgy, or can't stand to see Paulo's toothy face smiling as he forces Fabio to blow him, and goes out to look at the sea. Leticia, follows him out and begs him to put a stop to the degrading spectacle. And the chances of that happening instead of us getting a lecture on the socio-political makeup of their merry band is zero percent.

See, he can't do anything to keep Paulo and Jorge from raping all of Leticia's friends even though the rape is contrary to his stated ethical principles because they have an agreement. He is the brains and they are the brawn. Besides, they've been repressed for decades in prison and it's better that they tire themselves out raping the others so they won't want her.

Wow, nice fellow. Remember, Tercio is the guy we're supposed to want to like and to feel bad for even though he's the villain. And, like Amato and Renato, he's nothing but a speechifier.

We cut back inside and alternate between poor Fabio being raped and the two girls going at one another. It isn't any less uncomfortable this time either, and it goes on and on and on. The scene ends both mercifully and abruptly as Paulo reads the lead story in the morning paper. It's about them and while the trip to this scene wasn't at all fun, this is kind of good. Now the other characters get to learn about where these robbers came from and what their names are at the same time we do. Don't let the review fool you, this is really the first time that all three of their names get used enough to put them to their faces.

For what it's worth (about half a buck) Tercio is the only male character in the film who looks like someone that should be in the movies. I don't know if that is a detriment or a benefit, considering the film. They also set him up as a babyface sort of killer too, his crime, as the story says is bank robbery and murder. While this is being read to us he is sipping a big glass of milk.

Okay, back to the news story. Seems that their 4th man, Zacao, didn't die of a heart attack after all and is in police custody. Now the escapees are up shit creek and they know it because if the police can get Zacao to talk they'll learn where the boat is coming to pick up the other three.

The escapees need a plan. First though its time for Jorge to turn on Tercio because the brains of the operation didn't realize that Zacao wasn't dead and the other two listened. Therefore, they fact that they will probably get caught and sent back to the slammer is Tercio's fault.

Tercio already has demonstrated that he has no sort of real hold over the other two, but they have enough respect in his intelligence to stick around. Well boy-o, those days are over. Jorge want to take charge. He has a plan.

And that plan is rape.

But he's already has his, and so has Paulo, so it's time to get Tercio into the picture. He does this by bringing up how the other prisoners used to call Tercio effeminate names in the clink and wonders aloud if Tercio has had a change in tastes like Paulo. Worse, Jorge wonders why Tercio never said he missed women.

Tercio counters that he missed love (gag me).

Jorge says it's time to find out of Tercia is a real man. I guess it sort of makes a weird kind of sense that Jorge could use this line to push Tercio around, I mean, Paulo is admittedly gay now from his time in prison and Jorge doesn't say shit to him about it and I think I know why. I think Jorge ignores Paulo's admitted homosexuality because Paulo is honest about it and honesty deprives bullies of their weapons.

Anyway, that's enough psychobabble from me.

Tercio falls back on his class and perceived intellectualism that is supposed to shield him from brutes like this, but it doesn't work. Leticia, recognizing what's going on, offers herself to him instead and like before, without much resistance, the brains of the group, the Marxist thinker, the revolutionary, the political prisoner, folds under pressure.

We are starting to see how Tercio is being set up for the audience and it's an ingenious way to get the government message out to the masses.
Also, I'd like to add, on a personal note, that Leticia is stunningly annoying.

We now return to our regularly scheduled review.

Tercio and Leticia have "nice" sex (though technically it's still rape) to the strains of classical music. At least she seems to be enjoying it. But she's the only one. I guess this is a way of displaying her fulfillment in being with someone who isn't a set-carpenter, or a phony? Or something?

The escapees put all of the hostages in a room and lock the door. Now, I've never been to Brazil, but I've also never seen a house with a virtual cell built into it. So there doesn't seem to be a reason why the cast of actors couldn't just climb out a window or something, but then there doesn't appear to be any windows in the place either, so who knows. The important thing is they are all locked away. That gives Jorge a reason to say see-you-later to Tercio and Paulo so he can check out the landing spot on the beach.

Tercio tells him not to do anything stupid.

But, we are talking about Jorge, so…

He sees a couple and a girl skinny-dipping and later fucking in their tent. He watches for a while then introduces himself to the girl. She likes him. They fuck. He kills her.

Oops. That's going to complicate things.

Now the local cops are all over the beach.

I'm throwing the timeline a little out of whack here for no reason other than I feel like it, so there.

Back at the beach house our captives can now continue the political discussion from before with Leticia action as surrogate for Tercio. She's made her feelings for him clear already, but Amaro is pretty sure she's making a mistake. Letitcia accuses him of being a heartless asshole who in the midst of all this chaos hasn't shown any emotion. He explains that he's hiding his fear (for no good reason if you ask me). She throws Tercio in his face too (not literally, duh…) by pissing all over Amaro's economics degree because Tercio has "ideals".

What the fuck is it with women and stupid men choices? I mean, Tercio is okay looking and didn't actively start to rape the cast when they first met, but he's a bank robber, murderer, and escaped felon. He's not the definition of a stable guy, whereas a hard working dude with a college degree and a porn star girlfriend gets shit on because he's worked hard and is successful.

You know what, I hate Leticia!

Okay, back to the movie.

Tercio barges in and tells them all to cut the shit. He sees that Amaro and Leticia have been at one another but Leticia calms him down immediately. She asks if the girls can take a bath. Tercio agrees.

We cut back to the beach where Jorge is skinny-dipping and comes upon one of the campers he saw from the woods earlier.

Back in the bathroom, Leticia and Nelia are drying off after their shower. It doesn't say where Ana and Sandra are, but I am guessing they are waiting for their turn in the shower. Anyway, Nelia is prying Leticia for information about her feelings for Tercio. She too warns her but Leticia isn't listening. See, she's found true love with Tercio, she knew it as soon as she saw him (waving a gun) and immediately felt an affinity for his complex political ideology.

Nelia says she's rushing, but that's what young people do I guess.

Cut back to the beach where post sandy fuck. On a related note, do people actually have sex in the sand? I can't imagine that it would be very comfy after the first minute or so.

Jorge and Lily (that's the girl's name) run into the ocean and while blowing Jorge underwater, she bites him on the linguica. Jorge, being as stable as Zimbabwe currency, strangles her on the beach.

What a guy!

Back at the beach house, Ana and Sandra are drying off now and Paulo tells them that all of the women are to be dressed nice and ready for dinner at 8PM, sharp. He and Tercio and Jorge steam nice clothes form the closets and get ready for a nice formal dinner. Tercio is pissed that Jorge was out swimming and could have led the cops right to them. He doesn't yet know that Jorge has done more than skinny dip down at the shoreline.

Paulo admits at dinner that he loves formal meals and as a kid (wait for it…) he used to love it whenever his mother set the table (wait for it…) and how he would watch from the side and die with envy (almost there now…). Nelia asks if he had to sit at the kid's table (there it is… look!). But he replies that there were no kids in the house and his mother was the servant and chef. (there we are, a little pity story for you).

Of course these sort of side stories are meant to curry a little sympathy for these crooks from the audience, but it's so ham-handed that it never does more than induce eye-rolling. Jorge sees right through all this crap and accuses Paulo's mom of being a maid and a prostitute which gets Paulo all kinds of angry. Back to my original point though, sure, Paulo grew up in a place where his mother waited on people and cleaned up after them, but he went on to be a pimp and convict. Surely you can't suggest that his very unoriginal upbringing led him to the poor place in life he currently occupies, right?

I can't and won't. He's a pimp. Fuck him.

And we aren't done hearing about Paulo's life either. His mother, as he describes, was a saint, always devout, and he used to accompany her to church every day. Tercio ribs him a little at this, remember, the communist plague first makes religion illegal, then handguns… or is it the other way around? Either way without realizing what we've done, the audience have they not immolated themselves on the coffee table or something, have stumbled into another long-form socio-political discussion.

Great. Wonderful. If anyone needs me I'll be in the kitchen hitting myself in the head with a cast iron pan.

This time it's faith and whether you can lose it. On one side we have Paulo, who lost his faith when his mother died and God didn't let her live so he became a criminal (I kid you not), on the other is Leticia who believes that faith never really goes away. Moderating tonight is Tercio who posts the question, essentially, what good is religiousness in the face of crushing social injustice and poverty.

Leticia, clearly out of her league here and desperately trying to justify the tingling in her contractor-tested loins every time Tercio goes on a Marxist rant, says she it's not religion that's important, it's believing in a superior being who controls everyone's destiny and makes it so that people meet each other. Tercio doesn't buy into this semi-literate claptrap but Leticial continues that Paulo's mother died for a reason, one to end her suffering from sickness and two to prevent her suffering from seeing her asshole son become a pimp and convict. Paulo counters that Leticia's mother must be thrilled to have a whore for a daughter.

I love arguments like this. It's like Christmas at the in-laws.

Back in the cell, the men are bickering like idiots. Renato is sure that the criminals have no plans at all to rape the women repeatedly after forcing them to serve dinner. Amaro takes the opposite position. Now it's time for Amaro to demonstrate his superiority over the "actors". Finally though he gets to the carne de espito of the matter in that neither Renato or Fabio have done diddly jack shit to get them out of this mess and for all the she shit talk, the only one who's stood up at all was Amaro. Worse, he accuses Fabio of liking the rape he got at Paulo's hands. Renato gets in the middle and Amaro, as he's done all the way through the movie, backs down and apologizes.

Jesus man, show some goddamn backbone!

Amaro says that they need a plan, and that the criminals have to have some sort of exploitable weakness.

Really Amaro? You don't fucking say. I mean, we've been watching them too and can see that Tercio is a weak leader, Jorge is nuttier than chipmunk shit and hornier than a hundred rabbits, and Paulo is just barely smart enough to tie his own shoes. You don't think there's something to exploit there?

On the way back to the cell, Jorge snatches, and rapes Sandra.

This scene, cutting between the rape, and Tercio, and Paulo, and Ana (screaming and banging on the door) goes on for like five minutes. I wanted to wash myself with a wire brush and EZ-Off when it was finally over. Once it mercifully ends we can move into the final act of the film.

Jorge is on guard duty, Paulo naps, and Tercio takes Leticia for a nice walk down at the seashore. The film uses this scene to torture us again with an exploration of their relationship. Leticia wants to run away with Tercio no matter where he goes, she's fallen completely in love with him. Tercio, he's more non-committal about the love thing but promises that no matter what happens he will protect her from the other two convicts.

What a guy. Here's the thing, okay, this scene has been played out a bazillion times in all manner of film and TV and friggin comic book even, and in every case I can't even pretend to think of the guy is a little rough around the edges but a good guy nonetheless. Here, Tercio is a FUCKING BANK ROBBING MURDERER. So all Leticia's talk about his purity and cleanliness is just stunningly stupid. She KNOWS he's killed a guy (at least one) and yet she's still drawn to his obviously doomed ideology.

Ok, rant over.

Back at the beach house, Jorge wants coffee and makes Nelia make it for him. He has designs on her again, obviously, and she goes willingly. Nelia, unlike EVERY OTHER character in the film has at least two functioning brain stems and knows that Jorge's lust is the key to their escape. She, in a split second of smartness, plans his death. He makes a pass at her in the kitchen and then seems shocked and disappointed that she doesn't respond.

I mean, she's been raped by him once already, and she's had to watch him rape her friends and beat the shit out of her husband. What's not to like?

She turns on him and says he's handsome. That's enough to get Jorge out of the kitchen.

We cut very abruptly to daytime where Tercio and Leticia make love on a big rock (that can't be comfortable). Tercio has thought over Leticia's words from the night before and agrees that they have to stay together forever.

Leticia finally lays on Tercio that her life has been a long series of crap since she was a kid and running off with him to a new country will make all the difference. It's even better because she fell in love with him at first sight. Tercio and she run off into the waves.

We snap back to the beach house, where's it's now morning (the hell?) as Nelia brings Jorge his coffee. What? Did it take all night to make a cup of coffee?

He's not as dumb as he looks (aside from the killing people part) and thinks she might be trying to poison him. But, Nelia takes the first sip of coffee to prove it's okay, then lavishes him with more praise as she starts to strip.

Jorge, showing a complete lack of blood in the big head goes right for her, but Nelia has stashed a big-ass kitchen knife on her pants and stabs Jorge to death with it.

Hooray for Nelia.

Unfortinately, Paulo has awakened and is staggering to the porch. Nelia leaps on Jorge's body and pretends to screw him. This fools Paulo. Nelia grabs Jorge's gun and drags his body into the bushes.

Cut to Tercio and Leticia on the beach. They stumble upon a whole shitload of cops investigating the murdered camper (thanks Jorge!) and race back to the house.

Meanwhile, Nelia is sneaking around with the gun. She knows Paulo is somewhere but not sure where. Because she's a klutz, and he's an idiot, they don't find each other. Paulo does find Jorge's body. By now Nelia has released the other hostages and hands the gun over to Amaro.

They confront Paulo and we learn that the pistol wasn't even loaded. I am sure all of the girls who were raped are relieved to know that. Amaro, not giving a shit anymore, attacks Paulo who wields a little penknife. Before anyone can be stabbed, Tercio and Leticia return. Tercio has bullets.

The fighting stops and Renato, leaping into the fray to show his complete uselessness says "they said they were leaving today. Let's wait."

What a shit-ball. Honestly, these guys have just RAPED EVERYONE BUT YOU, and you're going to wait them out?

I found myself wishing Amaro would turn around and kick Renato in the nuts.

Tercio says they can't leave because the beach is loaded with cops milling around some corpse. Paulo says, casually, "oh, that must be the girl that Jorge killed yesterday. He told me about it last night. with the same sort of delivery as if his line was "oh, I think I'd like another slice of bread" or "oh, those people must be friends because they are not fighting."

Tercio, flips but manages to stay in control long enough to send Ana out to talk to the police who are driving up to the house.

She tips the cops off who leave.

A few hours later Tercio is suspicious (how he didn't realize her signal is beyond even my awesome skills of film dissection). Ana threatens him too, she's had enough. Paul says they have to get to the beach or their boat won't stick around and it'll be curtains (curtains I tells ya).

The pair reason that the cops are looking for the murderer of the girl on the beach and they should be able to get to the boat safely. As an insurance policy they grab Fabio (no doubt Paulo's tastes have something to do with that). Tercio pauses and stares longingly at Leticia (and she at him) before leaving.

Then, the cast just sits there and talks about how they are almost safe! What the hell people, they're gone! Call the cops! By now the characters have made me so angry I yell at the DVD player and yet, here they are being idiots. Renato gets special mention for suggesting they sit tight even longer before calling the police. I mean, why wait? What the fuck do you have to gain by letting Tercio and Paulo escape? Nothing! Nothing you goddamn idiots! Call the cops!

It's as if the writer got to the point where Tercio leaves and thought "fuck. Now what?" and actually wrote that into the script because the film doesn't just pause here, it slams on the brakes and screeches to a halt. The stoppage only lasts a minute, but it's long enough, believe me.

I dunno, maybe they director wants me to yell at the screen.

Anyway, the cast rationalizes that soon the two of them will be gone and Fabio will be back and everything will be great because the cops are looking for someone else. They have no doubt forgotten about Jorge's body in the bushes. But that's neither here nor there really. All this does is set up the revelation that Ana has tipped off the cops which triggers Leticia to run screaming for the beach.

Everyone gives chase except for Sandra and Ana.

Cut to Paulo standing on the beach with a suitcase (as if that isn’t going to attract attention?). The problem is, the boat is late and Paulo is getting nervous. We pull back to reveal a whole bunch of cops hiding in the bushes. Paulo runs off to take a crap behind a rock and stumbles onto a cop who shoots him.

Paulo dies in the surf. (YAY!)

Tercio puts his gun to Fabio's head creating a new hostage drama for us. Renato, begs Leticia to trade herself for Fabio, which she does. Leticia bargains for Fabio's release then, because her life is empty and Tercio doesn't want to go back to prison, the pair kill themselves with the pistol.

The last shot is of the boat cruising near the beach then turning around; We get this scene, like the burning car in the beginning, for an easy three minutes.

So, after watching this thing more than four times I am admittedly more fond of it now than I was at the beginning. Partly because I see how the underlying message of the film was obscured by the bad porn, bad acting, and stupid script before. But it's clear on the fourth viewing that Violence and Flesh toes the government line. It's almost Kino Eye levels of propaganda. And what is the message?

Defying the government and embracing revolution is doom, your doom. Like I said way back at the beginning, these films were allowed in Brazil because the porn disguised the political message, it's no surprise that government wouldn't get in on the act especially if the films were popular. South America, more so than today, struggled politically from the 1960s through probably the 1990s as the continent became one of quieter battlegrounds for western and eastern political theory. For every Salvador Allende there was a Pinochet, etc.

And Brazil, with a succession of military dictators wasn't any different, albeit more stable and very pro-western.

And look at the way the cast breaks down here, look at the liberal archetypes and what happens to them -

Fabio - skinny gay teen, attached to an impotent intellectual, raped.Renato – Fabio's intellectual boyfriend and playwright. He's incapable of any sort of defense. He's weak in the face of any sort of force.Nelia – the porn actress (once had an affair with Renato). She's happy to be married to an economist (who helps keep the country moving so is said over and over).Amaro – the economist, he's the only guy with guts but has no backup. Has to keep defending his line of work to the rest of the cast.Letitcia – seduced out of her perceived meaningless bourgeoisie life by young and idealistic revolutionary Tercio leading to her suicide.Ana – lesbian actress, not wanted by the men, powerless too except over Sandra who she promises to protect and yet fails to do so.Sandra – Cautious young lesbian taking cues from older lesbian actress, raped and beaten.Jorge – Brutal peasant, representing the most likely to be coerced into rebellion. Knifed.Paulo – Brutal peasant, representing the most likely to be coerced into rebellion. Shot in the back with his pants down.Tercio – Revolutionary, suicide after his plan fails.

All of these characters are like an After School Special about why you shouldn't think about rebelling against the current government.